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September 15, 2012

ISLAMABAD: A Baloch rights campaigner played a leading role in convincing the United Nations Human Rights Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and western countries that Baloch leader Brahamdagh Bugti must be given sanctuary in a safe European country.

Munir Mengal’s Baloch Voice Foundation, a Paris-based NGO, appointed Madam Bruna Molina as its legal representative in May 2010 to work on the asylum case of Brahamdagh Bughti and the members of his family while the Baloch leader was going through a difficult time in Afghanistan. Brahamdagh Bugti reached Switzerland in late October 2010 and has been living there ever since on political asylum.

After Brahumdagh reached Switzerland, many people claimed to have helped him but a spokesman for Bugti particularly denied that Munir Mengal had played any role in helping Bugti to leave Afghanistan. Sher Mohammed Bugti, official spokesman for the Balochistan Republican Party, had said: “I would say that Baloch nation knows the career of Nawab Sahab very well and they know (this) as well that Nawab Sahab doesn’t need any kind of help from Munir Mengal or someone else.”

Although Mr Mengal is silent on this issue and refuses to discuss the matter but the papers seen by this correspondent during the investigative efforts indicate the highest level of diplomacy involvement of the world powers in Brahamdagh Bugti’s asylum case as well as the determined struggle by a small NGO.

On August 23, 2010, Molina wrote to Munir Mengal about the letters written to the president, minister and to the United Nations Human Rights Commission for Refugees in support of Bugti’s asylum claim. On August 23, 2010, a letter was written to Molina by a member of the UNHCR informing her in confidentiality that its representative “in Argentina has been called to see the minister in Uruguay about this case next week”.

A high-powered meeting took place in Dubai in the first week of August 2010 where the issue of Bugti’s “transfer to the airport and the connection to Uruguay at the airport in San Paolo” was addressed. On April 16, 2009 UNHCR’s Bangkok worker Babar Baloch wrote to Munir Mengal and sent him a letter from the UNHCR Representative in Pakistan, Ms Guenet Guebre-Christos, in which the case of Bugti was discussed. These correspondences were passed either through diplomatic channels or through UNHCR.

The official record shows that on 03-05-2010, Brahamdagh Bugti appealed to the UNHCR officials – Philip Alston, Special Rapportuer on Summary and or Arbitrary Executions and Manfred Nowak, Special Rapportuer on Torture – on the letterhead of Balochistan Voice Foundation appealing for political asylum in accordance with the refugee convention for “myself and my family, namely my mother Fozia, my wife Shomaila, my three children, daughter Payafi, sons Bairam and Shabaz M Akbar, as well as my cousin Shaiba with hope that your intervention will prevent the government forces of Pakistan and Afghanistan, where we are hiding, to torture and to execute myself and my family if they find our whereabouts”.

The letter continued: “At this stage a strong military offensive is taking place in Afghanistan. I and my family are totally unprotected. We are suffering from a terrible trauma. We have been hiding for more than three years. Since my grandfather’s death, assassinated by the Pakistan Army in 2006, our lives have been in constant danger.

In the asylum application to the UNHCR, Bugti stated that he left Pakistan on 17-03-2005. In the means of travel out of home country, he wrote, “after bombardment of Dera Bugti, we left home for life safety by hiding ourselves, on foot and by camels, and used Chaman border as the exit point from home country”.

But it is believed that after reaching safely in Geneva, relations between Munir Mengal and Brahumdagh Bugti soared for reasons unknown.

In an email exchange, Bruna Molina, a former UN Staff member from the Office of Legal Affairs and Human Right in whose apartment Bugti initially stayed, confirmed that “Munir Mengal played an essential role in securing asylum in Switzerland for Brahumdagh Bugti.

Molina said because of Bugti’s background and the “demarches” undertaken by Pakistan, no government would grant him asylum. “In fact, it was a set of circumstances and regulations, carefully orchestrated, that had allowed him to travel to Geneva first, and a few weeks later his family.

“On my instructions they followed the strict Swiss regulations for asylum. I have supported them throughout their procedures. At present they are waiting for their final decision from the Swiss government, she said. “If Munir Mengal was not as determined to follow his case, I can assure you that Bugti would still be in Dubai hiding. But Bugti dropped all people who had assisted him. I came to the conclusion that the only interest of the Bugti and Mari families is to secure and recover their possessions and wealth in Baluchistan. Human Rights is a good subject to bring their case forward at the UN,” she said.

A group of about 1500 Muslims staged an ugly demonstration outside the US Consulate-General in Chennai on the evening of September 14,2012, in protest against a derogatory film on Islam and its Holy Prophet produced by an unidentified person in the US.

2.A video clip from the film with Arabic sub-titles uploaded on to the Internet has led to a series of anti-US demonstrations by Muslims in some countries of the world, with the demonstrations taking violent form in some places.During a demonstration outside the US Consulate in Benghazi in Libya on September 11,2012, a small group of heavily armed Muslims launched a commando-style attack on the Consulate resulting in the death of the US Ambassador to Libya and three other US officials.

3. The involvement of the Ansar al-Sharia (Supporters of the Sharia), an affiliate of Al Qaeda, is suspected in the Benghazi attack.The Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), based in Yemen, is also called Ansar al-Sharia. One does not know as yet whether the Ansar suspected in the Benghazi attack is the Yemeni branch of Al Qaeda orwhether it is a different organisation of Libyan roots.

4. The Bengaluru Police are presently interrogating 18 educated Muslim youths arrested in Bengaluru, Hubli, Hyderabad and Maharashtra on charges of conspiring to assassinate a number of Hindu personalities believed sympathetic to the Hindutva movement.According to the Bengaluru Police, the Muslim suspects in their custody were self-motivated by visiting the web site of AQAP in Yemen, also known as the Ansar al-Sharia.

5. Muslim fundamentalist organisations in Pakistan and West Asia , including the Jamaat-ud-Dawa, the parent organisation of the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET), responsible for the 26/11 terrorist strikes in Mumbai, had called for world-wide anti-US protest rallies against the film by Muslims after the Friday prayers on September 14.Media reports indicate that there was some response to this call in Jammu & Kashmir. Surprisingly and disquietingly, some Muslims of Chennai appear to have responded to this call after the Friday prayers in a local mosque.

6. To quote from the report carried by "The Hindu" on the protest rally in Chennai: " A protest against controversial American film Innocence of Muslims turned violent on Friday when the US Consulate-General on Anna Salai here was attacked by hundreds of protesters who breached police security cordon with ease.A crowd of 1500 people from the Tamil Nadu Muslim MunnetraKazhagam (TNMMK) and a few other Muslim outfits targeted the mission. They pelted it with stones, burnt the American flag and pictures of President Barack Obama and damaged CCTV cameras, a police booth and instructions boards for visitors…. A large group raising anti-US slogans marched from outside New College in Royapettah towards the Consulate. Consulate security personnel shut the doors to bar their entry.Iron railings and paintings on the building's compound wall were ruined.A small group tried to scale the Consulate's wall on Cathedral Road and damaged the doors and glass panels of the security chamber."

7. "The Hindu" has further reported as follows: " The State Intelligence had communicated a specific input on the possibility of an attack on the US Consulate in Chennai. However, the attack on the Consulate caught the police unawares as it was planned and well-organised with the protesters deviating from the original route to reach the target and having come armed with stones. Preliminary investigation revealed that a sizeable number of protesters came from the Tambaram side to join the main group of TMMK agitators. After burning a couple of US flags, they ran towards the Consulate raising slogans and stoned the building. They were joined by a few more youths from the Thousand Lights area."

8. The details of what happened in Chennai disturbingly resemble what happened in the Azad Maidan in Mumbai last month and what took place in Benghazi on September 11.While a large number of Muslims were peacefully demonstrating or holding a meeting, small groups of violent Muslim youth entered the scene and tried to indulge in violence.While in Mumbai and Chennai, the Muslim youth who indulged in violence were armed only with stones, in Benghazi they carried rifles and rocket-propelled grenades resulting in fatalities.

9. South India has had a history of Islamic radicalism. A founding father of the Students' Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) was from Kerala.During the 1990s, a jihadi terrorist organisation called Al Umma was very active in Tamil Nadu and Kerala. It carried out a number of acts of terrorism in Tamil Nadu, including the serial blasts in Coimbatore in February,1998, coinciding with a visit of ShriL.K.Advani, the BJP leader, to that town.The Tamil Nadu Police managed to arrest the leaders of the organisation and prosecute them.It has become dormant as a terrorist organisation, but it is believed that some of those presently associated with the TNMMK were originally associated with Al Umma when it was active.

10. Ten years ago, the Tamil Nadu Police discovered an attempt by a Saudi Arabia based cadre of the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET) to float a new jihadiorganisation in Tamil Nadu called the Muslim Self-Defence Force.It did not make much progress. It was reported that the investigations made by the Police in North India brought out that at least one training/motivational camp of the Indian Mujahideen was held in Kerala.

11. After the recent anti-Muslim violence in the Rakhine State of Myanmar and our Assam, an organisation based in Hyderabad , Andhra Pradesh, came to notice for disseminating exaggerated accounts of the violence with the help of morphed images. The recent exodus of a large number of our citizens from the North-East working and living in Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad followed dissemination of motivated rumours warning of retaliatory attacks on people from the North-East. The people and cells behind this conspiracy have not yet been identified, arrested and prosecuted.And then, we had the arrest of 18 Muslim suspects with ideological vibrations for AQAP of Yemen.

12. The chain of developments outlined above indicate a web of Islamic radicalism in the South the full ramifications of which seem to have defied detection by the police and the central intelligence agencies. The well-organised and ugly protests outside the US Consulate in Chennai draw attention to the need to unravel and neutralise this web before it gets out of control and embarks on a path of AQAP style jihadi terrorism.( 15-9-12)

September 14, 2012

This book has emerged as a result of several experiences that have deeply influenced my research and scholarship over the past decade. In the 1990s, an African-American scholar at Princeton University casually told me that he had returned from a trip to India, where he was working with the ‘Afro-Dalit Project’. I learnt that this USoperated and -financed project frames inter-jati/varna interactions and the Dalit movement using American cultural and historical lenses. The Afro-Dalit project purports to paint Dalits as the ‘Blacks’ of India and non-Dalits as India’s ‘Whites’. The history of American racism, slavery and Black/White relations is thus superimposed onto Indian society. While modern caste structures and inter-relationships have included long periods of prejudice toward Dalits, the Dalit experience bears little resemblance to the African slave experience of America. But taking its cue from the American experience, the Afro-Dalit project attempts to empower Dalits by casting them as victims at the hands of a different race.

Separately, I had been studying and writing about the ‘Aryans’, as to who they were, and whether the origin of Sanskrit and Vedas was an import by ‘invaders’ or indigenous to India. In this context, I sponsored numerous archeological, linguistic and historical conferences and book projects, in order to get deeper into the discourse. This led me to research the colonial-era construction of the Dravidian identity, which did not exist prior to the nineteenth century and was fabricated as an identity in opposition to the Aryans. Its survival depends upon belief in the theory of foreign Aryans and their misdeeds.

I had also been researching the US Church’s funding of activities in India, such as the popularly advertised campaigns to ‘save’ poor children by feeding, clothing and educating them. In fact, when I was in my twenties living in the US, I sponsored one such child in South India. However, during trips to India, I often felt that the funds collected were being used not so much for the purposes indicated to sponsors, but for indoctrination and conversion activities. Additionally, I have been involved in numerous debates in the US with think-tanks, independent scholars, human rights groups and academics, specifically on their treatment of Indian society as a sort of scourge that the west had to ‘civilize’. I coined the phrase ‘caste, cows and curry’ to represent the exotic and sensational portrayals of India’s social and economic problems and their interpretation these as ‘human rights’ issues.

I decided to track the major organizations involved in promulgating these various theories, as well as those spearheading political pressure, and eventually the prosecution of India on the grounds of human rights violations. My research included following the money trail by using the provisions of financial disclosure in the US, studying the promotional materials given out by most such organizations, and monitoring their conferences, workshops and publications. I investigated the individuals behind such activities and their institutional affiliations.

What I found out should sound the alarm bell for every Indian concerned about our national integrity. India is the prime target of a huge enterprise—a ‘network’ of organizations, individuals and churches—that seems intensely devoted to the task of creating a separatist identity, history and even religion for the vulnerable sections of India. This nexus of players includes not only church groups, government bodies and related organizations, but also private thinktanks and academics. On the surface they appear to be separate and isolated from one another, but in fact, as I found, their activities are well coordinated and well funded from the US and Europe. I was impressed by the degree of interlocking and cooperation among these entities. Their resolutions, position papers and strategies are well articulated, and beneath the veneer of helping the downtrodden, there seem to be objectives that would be inimical to India’s unity and sovereignty.

A few Indians from the communities being ‘empowered’ were in top positions in these Western organizations, and the whole enterprise was initially conceived, funded and strategically managed by Westerners. However, there are now a growing number of Indian individuals and NGOs who have become co-opted by them, and receive funding and mentorship from the West. The south Asian studies in the US and European universities invite many such ‘activists’ regularly and give them prominence. The same organizations had also been inviting and giving intellectual support to Khalistanis, Kashmir militants, Maoists, and other subversive elements in India. So I began to wonder whether the campaigns to mobilize Dalits, Dravidians and other minorities in India were somehow part of the foreign policy of certain Western countries, if not openly then at least as an option kept in reserve. I am unaware of any other major country in which such large-scale processes prevail without monitoring or concern by the local authorities. No wonder so much has to be spent in India after such a separatist identity gets weaponized into all out militancy or political fragmentation.

The link between academic manipulations and subsequent violence is also evident in Sri Lanka, where manufactured divisiveness caused one of the bloodiest civil wars. The same also happened in Africa where foreign-engineered identity conflicts led to one of the worst ethnic genocides ever in the world.

About three years ago, my research and data had become considerable. Moreover, many Indians are simply unaware of the subversive forces at work against their country, and I felt that it ought to be organized for wider dissemination and debate. I started working with Aravindan Neelakandan, based in Tamil Nadu, to complement my foreign data with his access to the ground reality in India’s backwaters.

This book looks at the historical origins of both the Dravidian movement and Dalit identity, as well as the current players involved in shaping these separatist identities. It includes an analysis of the individuals and institutions involved and their motivations, activities, and desired endgame. While many are located in the US and the European Union, there are an increasing number in India too, the latter often functioning like the local branch offices of these foreign entities.

The goal of this book is not to sensationalize or predict any outcomes. Rather, it is to expand the debate about India and its future. Much is being written about India’s rise in economic terms and its implications to India’s overall clout. But not enough is written on what can go wrong given the rapidly expanding programs exposed in this book and the stress they put on India’s faultlines. My hope is that this book fills this gap to some extent.

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1. DRAVIDIAN IDENTITY CONSTRUCTED, EXPLOITED & POLITICIZED:

The fabrication of South Indian history is being carried out on an immense scale with the explicit goal of constructing a Dravidian identity that is distinct from that of the rest of India. From the 1830s onwards, this endeavor’s key milestones have claimed that south India: is linguistically separate from the rest of India; has an un-Indian culture, aesthetics and literature; has a history disconnected from India’s; is racially distinct; is religiously distinct; and, consequently, is a separate nation. Tamil classical literature that predates the 19th century reveals no such identity conflicts especially with “alien” peoples of the north, nor does it reveal any sense of victimhood or any view of Westerners or Christians as “liberators.” This identity engineering was begun by British colonial and missionary scholars, picked up by politically ambitious south Indians with British backing, and subsequently assumed a life of its own. Even then it was largely a secular movement for political power (albeit with a substratum of racist rhetoric). In recent decades, however, a vast network of groups based in the West has co-opted this movement and is attempting to transform Tamil identity into the Dravidian Christianity movement premised on a fabricated racial-religious history. This rewriting of history has necessitated a range of archeological falsities and even epigraphic hoaxes, blatantly contradicting scientific evidence. Similar interventions by some of the same global forces have resulted in genocides and civil wars in Sri Lanka, Rwanda and other places. If unchallenged these movements could produce horrific outcomes in South India.

2. LINKING OF DRAVIDIAN & DALIT IDENTITIES:

India has its own share of social injustices that need to be continually addressed and resolved. Caste identities have been used to discriminate against others, but these identities were not always crystallized and ossified as they are today, nor were they against a specific religion per se. Caste identity faultlines became invigorated and politicized through the British Censuses of India, and later intensified in independent India by vote bank politics. A dangerous anti-national grand narrative emerged based on claims of a racial Dalit identity and victimhood. But Dalit communities are not monolithic and have diverse local histories and social dynamics. There are several inconsistencies and errors in these caste classifications: not all Dalit communities are equivalent socially and economically, nor are they static or always subordinate to others. While Dravidian and Dalit identities were constructed separately, there is a strategy at work to link them in order to denigrate and demonize Indian classical traditions (including spiritual texts and the identities based on these) as a common enemy. This in turn, has been mapped on to an Afro-Dalit narrative which claims that Dalits are racially related to Africans and all other Indians are “whites.” Thus, Indian civilization itself is demonized as anti-humanistic and oppressive. This has become the playground of major foreign players, both from the evangelical right and from the academic left. It has opened huge career opportunities for an assortment of middlemen including NGOs, intellectuals and “champions of the oppressed.” While the need for relief and structural change is immense, the shortsighted selfish politics is often empowering the movements’ leaders more than the people in whose name the power is being accumulated. The “solutions” could exacerbate the problems.

3. FOREIGN NEXUS EXPLOITS INDIA’S FAULTLINES:

An entity remains intact as long as the centripetal forces (those bringing its parts together) are stronger than its centrifugal forces (those pulling it apart). This study of a variety of organizations in USA and Europe demonstrates certain dangerous initiatives that could contribute to the breaking up of Indian civilization’s cohesiveness and unity using various pretexts and programs. The institutions involved include certain Western government agencies, churches, think tanks, academics, and private foundations across the political spectrum. Even the fierce fight between Christians and Leftists within the West, and the clash between Islam and Christianity in various places, have been set aside in order to attack India’s unity. Numerous intellectual paradigms, such as postmodernist critiques of “nation,” originating from the West’s own cultural and historical experiences are universalized, imported and superimposed onto India. These ill-fitting paradigms take center stage in Indian intellectual circles and many guilt-ridden Indian elites have joined this enterprise, seeing it as “progressive” and a respectable path for career opportunities. The book does not predict the outcomes but simply shows that such trends are accelerating and do take considerable national resources to counteract. If ignored, these identity divisions can evolve into violent secessionism.

4. RELIGION’s ROLE IN THE COMPETITION FOR SOFT POWER:

Global competition among collective identities is intensifying, even as the “flat world” of meritocracy seems to enhance individual mobility based on personal competence. But the opportunities and clout of individuals in a global world relies enormously on the cultural capital and standing of the groups from which they emerge and are anchored to. As goes India and Indian culture (of which Hinduism is a major component), so will go the fate of Indians everywhere. Hence, the role of soft power becomes even more important than ever before. Religions and cultures are a key component of such soft power. Christian and Islamic civilizations are investing heavily in boosting their respective soft power, for both internal cohesiveness and external influence. Moreover, undermining the soft power of rivals is clearly seen as a strategic weapon in the modern kurukshetra.

5. INTERROGATING THE TERM “MINORITY”:

The book raises the question: Who is a “minority” in the present global context? A community may be numerically small relative to the local population, but globally it may in fact be part of the majority that is powerful, assertive and well-funded. Given that India is experiencing a growing influx of global funding, political lobbying, legal action and flow of ideologies, what criteria should we use to classify a group as a “minority”? Should certain groups, now counted as minorities, be reclassified given their enormous worldwide clout, power and resources? If the “minority” concerned has actually merged into an extra-territorial power through ideology (like Maoists) or theology (like many churches and madrassas), through infrastructure investment (like buying large amounts of land, buildings, setting up training centers, etc.), through digital integration and internal governance, then do they not become a powerful tool of intervention representing a larger global force rather than being simply a “minority” in India. Certainly, one would not consider a local franchise of McDonalds in India to be a minor enterprise just because it may employ only a handful of employees with modest revenues locally. It is its global size, presence and clout that are counted and that determine the rules, restrictions and disclosure requirements to which it must adhere. Similarly, nation-states’ presence in the form of consulates is also regulated. But why are foreign religious MNCs exempted from similar requirements of transparency and supervision? (For example: Bishops are appointed by the Vatican, funded by it, and given management doctrine to implement by the Vatican, and yet are not regulated on par with diplomats in consulates representing foreign sovereign states.) Indian security agencies do monitor Chinese influences and interventions into Buddhist monasteries in the northern mountain belt, because such interventions can compromise Indian sovereignty and soft power while boosting China’s clout. Should the same supervision also apply to Christian groups operating under the direction and control of their western headquarters and Islamic organizations funded and/or ideologically influenced by their respective foreign headquarters? Ultimately, the book raises the most pertinent challenge: What should India do to improve and deliver social justice in order to secure its minorities and wean them away from global nexuses that are often anti-Indian?

6. CONTROLLING THE DISCOURSE ON INDIA:

The book shows how the discourse on India at various levels is being increasingly controlled by the institutions in the West which in turn serve its geo-political ambitions. So, why has India failed to create its own institutions that are the equivalent of the Ford Foundation, Fulbright Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, etc.? Why are there no Indian university based International Relations programs with deep-rooted links to the External Affairs Ministry, RAW, and various cultural, historical and ideological think tanks? Why are the most prestigious journals, university degrees and conferences on India Studies, in sharp contrast to the way China Studies worldwide is under the control of Chinese dominated discourse, based in the West and mostly under the control of western institutions?

Note: This is a translation of Pratap Simha’s original Kannada Prabha piece titled Baaibittare Banna Bayalaaguttademba Bhayave Manmohan Singh published last Saturday.

Hazaron jawabon se acchi hai khamoshi meri

Na jaane kitne sawalon ke aabroo rakhe

So please answer us: how did this loot of epic proportions, of Rs. 1.86 lakh crores, occur right under your nose? When someone asks, “will you please answer the voters who’ve elected you,” you respond with “my silence is greater than a thousand questions.” Does this how the Prime Minister of the world’s largest democracy respond? Is there an irresponsibility greater than this? Isn’t this simply a nice ruse to avoid responsibility? Not just that. The Prime Minister has retorted that “it has been my general practice not to respond to motivated criticism directed personally at me.”

I mean…

Is it actually Manmohan Singh who’s made this statement? Does he suffer from a memory ailment? Does he forget the personal attack he himself made in 2008 against Leader of Opposition, L.K. Advani during the daylight disrobing of democracy when MP votes were literally bought both to save the Government and to get a majority for the Indo-US Nuclear deal? Does he forget how he mocked Advani asking him “change your astrologer” and “Sri Advani thinks Prime Ministership is his birthright.” His tongue, which was so active in those circumstances suddenly seems to forget how to do its job when explanation is sought for the coal scam.

So whose responsibility is it when such scams take place? Who needs to control, manage, answer for, and remedy such scams? In short, who needs to answer the nation?

The Prime Minister. But what’s our Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh doing? When he is questioned about the necessity for the Indo-US Nuclear deal, he launches on an emotional speech about how he is from a humble, rural background but when he’s asked questions about scams, why does he respond with silence?

In the country whose Constitution we have almost copied, People’s Representatives—the Opposition—have a specific function to perform. The term itself usually means that they are the voice of the people, they’re the ones who speak on behalf of the people and they’re the ones who protest against the ruling party when it indulges in excesses. The Opposition in India performs pretty much the same function—it speaks on behalf of the Indian people. So why don’t you answer the voice of the people, Dr. Singh? Don’t you comprehend the import of Arun Jaitley’s statement that the right of silence is not available to the Prime Minister?

OR….

Is silence your way of accepting your mistakes, like the Sanskrit proverb which says, “silence is acquiescence?” But your silence is worrying: it makes us suspicious about the shameful 2008 cash-for-episode in which you had wagered the survival of your Government just over one agreement with the US. Very suspicious.

But this doesn’t mean that Dr. Manmohan Singh never speaks.

On March 25 2009, Congress president Sonia Gandhi released her party’s election manifesto and announced Manmohan Singh as her party’s Prime Ministerial candidate. A visibly excited Dr Singh who was standing beside her embarked on a verbal volley of criticism against BJP’s Lal Krishna Advani. He characterized Advani as an “opportunist” and remarked that when he was Home Minister, “the Parliament was attacked, the Red Fort was attacked, the Gujarat riots occurred, and an Indian Airlines plane was hijacked. In the end, it was the terrorists who walked away with the gift of freedom. This is the achievement of Advani!”

But he didn’t stop at that. Perhaps the presence of Sonia Gandhi infused him with a courage unseen hithertofore. He continued, “My Government’s achievements will tell the people whether I’m a weak or a strong Prime Minister. However, Mr. Advani who called me a weak PM must answer what his contributions are apart from playing a leading role in the destruction of the Babri Masjid!” That was a really serious allegation. Around the same time, the Congress was on a smear campaign about Varun Gandhi’s “communal” and “dangerous” speech. Manmohan Singh’s Babri Masjid remark was equally dangerous and communal. But Advani hit back at his campaign in Arunachal Pradesh: “Sonia Gandhi has done a good thing by announcing Manmohan Singh as the PM candidate. But then, Manmohan Singh needs to get elected directly to the Lok Sabha with a popular mandate instead of getting the PM chair through the backdoor entry called Rajya Sabha! Perhaps people will then take him seriously. Manmohan Singh is the weakest Prime Minister this country has ever seen. He can do nothing without Sonia Gandhi’s permission. Not a single file moves without her orders!” He added that in the US, the whole nation watches two Presidential hopefuls debating it out on live TV. “I’m ready for such a debate with Manmohan Singh. Is he?”

Had there been anybody else in Dr.Singh’s place, he should have, would have certainly taken up Advani’s gauntlet. However, Dr. Singh had failed to respond even 15 days after Advani’s open invitation for debate. In the end, Congress party spokesperson Jayanti Natarajan issued a statement that said that Advani was enamoured with America and made a hasty exit.

Mr. Manmohan Singh, when a person makes an allegation against another, he must also be ready with an answer when it is his turn to face an allegation. When you can question Advani about Babri Masjid and demand accountability, doesn’t it become equally incumbent upon you to also provide answers, to be accountable? At another time and place, you claimed that you have ruled the nation for the longest duration after Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi. So why do you get flustered when people point out that during this exact same, long duration, this nation has witnessed the maximum number and variety of scams in all of Independent India’s history? Why do you get upset when the Washington Post calls you a tragic PM? Why do you get defensive when TIME magazine calls you an Underachiever and rebuke it saying you don’t need a certificate from others?

Haven’t Indian media houses published numerous stories critical of George W Bush and Barack Obama?

Of course, when a foreign publication termed Manmohan Singh as Sonia’s poodle, we do agree that it was a harsh term to use. But isn’t it true? If it isn’t true, if Dr. Singh isn’t Sonia’s puppet, he needs to prove that publication wrong by sacking the scam-mongering ministers in his Cabinet.

OR…

Are you scared that the true colours will show if you open your mouth Dr. Singh?

Controversial Quotes

The Ramayana argues for the colonization of the peoples of the subcontinent while the Ramcaritmanas argues for the worship of an iconic figure rather than, for instance, a consideration of the Upanishads’ metaphysics. – Vijay Prashad, Chair of South Asian History and Professor of International Studies, Trinity College. Founding member, Forum of Inqualabi Leftists

Coming back to Samskara, we see that not surprisingly, humanist teachings in Hinduism arise not from our host of gods and goddesses whose life stories are many times filled with outrageous kinds of deceit, manipulations, selfishness and greed…Indeed, when one such God tried to play the role of a guru as seen above in the Gita, the teachings are quite clearly non-humanistic.- Balmurli Natrajan, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, William Paterson University. Member, Forum of Inqualabi Leftists

Hinduism is a religion of violence. All Hindu gods killed their enemies and became heroic images. This is the only religion in the world where the killer becomes god. Whom did they kill? From Brahma to Krishna, those who were killed were Dalitbahujans. Now these images and the stories and narratives and everything is out there in the civil society. Now, because of this, the consciousness of worshipping the killer or worshipping violence did not give any space for human rights…for Hindu dharma, resolving of a conflict is only by killing. There is no other discourse. Debate is not there. You have to kill the enemy.- Kancha Ilaiah, author of ‘Why I am Not a Hindu’, in an interview written by Forum of Inqualabi Leftists

The Marxists have long subscribed to the view that Gandhi was a ‘romantic’, a hopeless idealist and even hypocrite; to this a chorus of voices added the thought that Gandhi was an insufferable ‘puritan’. -Vinay Lal, Associate Professor of History, UCLA. Member, Forum of Inqualabi Leftists

I just returned from Patna, India, and am sending this praise note from Calcutta, en route Chennai. But the spectacular baptismal event that has dwarfed the others took place in Patna, where we had in all two batches of 135 converts baptized in the river Ganges – in the very ‘Holy river’, where millions of the idol and demon worshipping pagans go every once in awhile to have a holy dip. – Bishop Ezra Sargunam, head of Evangelical Church of India

[The] Patels began sponsoring a number of Hindu religious outfits and backing Hindutva organisations in the state, thus presenting themselves as ardent Hindus, and, therefore, as ‘high’ castes. One aspect of that newly constructed identity as super-Hindus was a deep hostility towards Muslims. In fact, the Patels, who comprise more than 30% of the Gujarati population, played a major role in the 2002 anti-Muslim genocide. – Mukul Sinha, a speaker at the 2010 MIT Workshop organized by Indian American Muslim Council, in a 2007 interview with Yoginder Sikand, an affiliate of Forum of Inqualabi Leftists.

[The NRIs’] ‘patriotism’ is simple: they are jingoistic for whomever will allow them the freedom to make money. Whether saffron or red/white/blue, these cats are heavily into the green…And what are issues that motivate desis? Things to do with the ‘homeland’ or things that have to do with the exploitation and oppression of desis and others in the U.S. - Vijay Prashad, Chair of South Asian History and Professor of International Studies, Trinity College. Founding member, Forum of Inqualabi Leftists

A country not only divided between Mahommedan and Hindoo, but between tribe and tribe, between caste and caste; a society whose framework was based on a sort of equilibrium, resulting from a general repulsion and constitutional exclusiveness between all its members. Such a country and such a society, were they not the predestined prey of conquest?…India, then, could not escape the fate of being conquered, and the whole of her past history, if anything, is the history of the successive conquests she has undergone. Indian society has no history at all, at least no known history. What we call its history, is but the history of the successive intruders who founded their empires on the basis of that unresisting and unchanging society. - Karl Marx,The Future of Results of British Rule in India. July 22, 1853

Do you agree that the lives of Hindu deities are filled with all kinds of outrageous, deceitful and incestuous acts?

Do you think that Hinduism is a religion of violence where the killers have become Gods?

Do you think NRIs (non-Resident Indians) are slaves of corporate America that are motivated by issues of exploitation and oppression of “desis” and others in the US?

Do you agree that the Patel community of Gujarat sponsored or played a major role in the 2002 riots in Gujarat that killed many Muslims and Hindus?

The Forum of Inqualabi Leftists (FOIL) and its affiliates subscribe to the above views on Hinduism, India and the Hindu diaspora. FOIL, an organization with deep Communist connections, is a part of a nexus of Indian Communist/Christian Missionary/Islamist organizations that work in tandem to demonize Hinduism and India. According to them Hinduism has nothing good to offer and Indian society is nothing more than a mishmash of conflicting identities that should not exist together. All problems of India are due to Hinduism. Hence, a dire need exists for the West, led by the US, UK and other countries, to intervene in India’s internal matters and ‘emancipate’ the disadvantaged groups.

I am a Hindu American youth who was born in India but brought up in the US. I decided to create this site out of a growing frustration and concern that Hinduism and India are routinely demonized by individuals pretending to fight for ‘secularism’ and ‘human rights’; in reality, they follow a polluted Communist/Marxist agenda and support Islamic and Christian organizations at the expense of Hindus. They deeply discount the human rights and grievances of Hindus and blame most of the problems of India on Hinduism. Unfortunately, they have made professional careers out of blatantly inaccurate, highly out of context and racially charged books, articles and activities.

Most Hindus like me are unaware of their machinations, until we face prejudiced and racial views in high schools and colleges as well as in the media. Fellow Hindu and Indian youth are often shocked and even believe the views and arguments put forth by such professors, academics and activists due to inertia on their part or a lack of deeper understanding of Hindu scriptures and Indian history.

We do not consider all Muslims as terrorists or fundamentalists. In fact, many of us have close Muslim, Jewish and Christian friends. We also do not support discrimination against any section of our society based on rigid and hierarchical structures and corruption of our religious texts. We do, however, believe everyone has a fundamental right to practice her religion or spiritual path without being subject to ridicule and bigotry.

An Appeal:

I sincerely appeal to my fellow Hindus and Indians all over the world to go through this site and understand the game being played against our beloved heritage. We are in this game, whether we like it or not. And, the rules of the game favor our opponents. Either we step up and level the playing field or get wiped out. The impact of their strategies may not be felt immediately, but will certainly be felt over the years.

The Hindu community needs to unite against this rape of its heritage. While there have been some excellent efforts in this space, the community as a whole has yet to go on the offensive and analyze those who ‘analyze’ us.

I am not a scholar and don’t claim this to be a scholarly work. I have also not received help from any organization or group, domestic or foreign, but welcome feedback from anyone and everyone.

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On the Occasion of the 21st Session of the Human Rights Council at the UNO, Geneva, the President of Baloch Voice Foundation Mr. Munir Mengal said that the Baloch leadership was concerned that the Pakistan state would make it difficult for the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID) to collect information from the ground to prepare its report on the cases of enforced disappearances in Balochistan, even if it allows them visit to Pakistan.

Pakistan is a member state of UNO; hence, it has got a special responsibility to facilitate the visit of WGEID members to get access to the aggrieved people in Balochistan— particularly the civil society representatives, i.e., lawyers, political and human rights activists, and family members of the disappeared persons.

As per the information we are receiving from the ground, the Pakistani state is playing its old familiar tactics of stopping the aggrieved families from meeting the visiting WGEID members, while granting them full access in principle.

The UNO body has the mandate to hold the state, and the state organs responsible for enforced disappearances.

Various reports in the media, reports of various human rights organizations, statements given by family members of the missing persons, court documents, have pointed their fingers at the state secret services and the notorious Federal Constabulary (FC), which are involved in the disappearance of the Baloch people. They forcibly take away Baloch people, subject them to worst kind of torture, kill them and throw their mutilated dead bodies on the streets.

The Baloch people, and particularly the families of the disappeared persons do have tremendous hope and confidence in the UN body and hope that it would play an effective role on the issue enforced disappearances. It is also the responsibility of the eminent world body to ensure the safe release of the people under illegal custody of the security forces and to bring the offenders to justice.

While speaking to the members of the UN bodies and NGO representatives, MunirMengal urged that particularly, the UN and its bodies should take special notice of Pakistan state's efforts to stop the Baloch civil society members and aggrieved families from meeting with the GEID members. They must plan their visits well and get in touch with Baloch leaders on the ground to ensure effective interaction on the ground, which will enrich their report and help them serve the trust in an unbiased manner.

The three important economic decisions taken by the Government of Prime Minister Dr.Manmohan Singh on September 13 and 14,2012, are not going to herald an economic miracle for tomorrow.

2. These decisions relate to a significant increase in the price of diesel and permitting foreign direct investment in the civil aviation and retail sectors.The decision on civil aviation was expected by the political class as whole, but that relating to the retail sector was not. The Government's earlier attempt some months ago to permit FDI in the retail sector had to be given up due to strong opposition from some constituents of the ruling coalition as well as from the opposition BJP.

3. Despite the persisting slide-down in the economy, the Government of Dr.Manmohan Singh was avoiding taking these important decisions till now due to fears of adverse political consequences.Such adverse consequences might have been in the form of a break-up of the ruling coalition and consequent mid-term polls.

4. Another reason for the earlier hesitation of Dr.Manmohan Singh was the lack of enthusiasm for the proposal to permit FDI in the retail sector and to increase the diesel price from ShriA.K.Antony, the Defence Minister, who is perceived to be close to Mrs.Sonia Gandhi and enjoys her total political support despite his lack-lustre performance as the Defence Minister.The strong backing reportedly enjoyed by him from Mrs.SoniaGandhi came in the way of the Prime Minister overruling him.

5. ShriPranab Mukherjee, former Finance Minister, had little access to Mrs.Sonia Gandhi and did not enjoy her confidence.He was, therefore, not in a position to impart strength to Dr.Manmohn Singh in overcoming Shri Antony's foot-dragging on important issues of economic reforms.

6. The induction of Sri P.Chidambaram, who is believed to enjoy the confidence of Mrs.Sonia Gandhi to the same extent as Shri Antony, has given new confidence to the Prime Minister that he might be able to push ahead with at least some of the economic reforms because Shri Chidambaram shares the Prime Minister's views on the urgent need for some economic decisions, even if they be controversial, and his views will carry conviction to Mrs.Sonia Gandhi.

7.The immediate significance of the three economic decisions taken are more political than economic. Firstly, the negative drag that Shri Antony used to exercise with the backing of Mrs.Sonia Gandhi has now been neutralised by Shri Chidambaram.

8.Secondly,the Government and the Congress have realised that the impression of policy and governmental paralysis was not only adding to the negative drag on the economy, but was also creating a very poor image of the Government and the party in India and abroad. The "Washington Post's" negative projection of a worse-than-Hamlet Prime Minister has given a healthy shake-up to the Government.

9. The Government can afford to ignore the negative assessment of the "Time" magazine which is often prejudiced against India. Moreover, "Time" does not enjoy the same attention and respect in international financial circles as the WP does. The WP's assessment cannot be dismissed lightly as of no consequence.

10.Thirdly, as a result of the shake-up, the Government and the Congress decided to re-launch the stalling economic reforms even if there are negative political consequences. The Government has decided that the fear of a mid-term poll should not be allowed to stand in the way of important policy decisions relating to the economy.

11. Taking the important decisions is only the first step. Going ahead with their implementation despite the demand for a roll-back from coalition allies will be a more important second step.Even in the past, the Government had announced bold decisions, but subsequently abandoned or diluted them because of the threats and demands from the coalition partners.When there is a surge of such threats and demands, the Congress party tries to exercise pressure on the Government to roll back.When faced with mounting pressure from the party, Mrs.Sonia Gandhi had in the past shown a tendency to succumb to it.If she and her Party do it again and pressure the Government to roll back, the resulting loss of face for the Government and the Party could have incalculable consequencesfor the economy and for the political fortunes of the Congress.

12. There is a lot of unwarranted euphoria on the likely economic impact of the decisions, particularly those relating to the FDI.It will take at least five years or more for the beneficial economic impact to be felt. There is unlikely to be any poll dividends for the Congress as a result of these decisions.

13.These decisions are required to reverse the economic slide-down in the medium and long-terms. The Government should show a determination to implement them in the national interest even if the political consequences for the Congress may not be beneficial.( 15-9-12)

September 13, 2012

Our entire finance-based monetary system – led by banks but typified by insurance companies, investment management firms and hedge funds as well – is based on an acceptable level of carry and the expectation of earning it.

In a New Normal economy where lenders dance to the Blue Danube instead of the Lindy, how should we move our own feet? Carefully, I suppose, and with recognition that historic returns are just that – historic.​

Citigroup's Chuck Prince will likely join Irving Fisher in the annals of market history for his now infamous "As long as the music is playing, you've got to get up and dance." Unlike Fisher's quote, however, which affirmed a permanent plateau of prosperity in 1929, Prince's faux pas may have been interpreted unfairly. History books will never record the context under which his statement was made, but what if instead of subprime-specific, Mr. Prince was referring to his job as a banker? What if he had rephrased his response to "It's the job of a banker to keep on lending"? Well now, that would be a different story altogether. Today, that quote would earn him a Medal of Freedom from President Obama at a White House gala! And so I suggest in this instance we don't take him at his literal word, but take him at his role as an ex-CEO of one of the world's largest banks and see just where that takes the lot of us – sovereign, institutional and individual investors who in combination comprise what we now call our global financial system – all $150 trillion or so of it.

Too much debtCredit, of course, is what makes the global economy go. We wouldn't have gotten very far over the past several centuries despite Edison, Bell and Steve Jobs if barter was the accepted form of commerce. Even cash, serving as a medium of exchange and a disreputable store of value could not have promoted 3–4% real GDP growth in this gargantuan economy unless borrowers and savers were willing to exchange future promises – to utilize credit. Wimpy – in my oft-cited cartoon – said it best, "I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today." So McDonald's grew from a million to 500 billion served and Wimpy and his wimpalikes were delighted in the exchange, although their arteries and midsections inevitably came out a loser. Still, the point is that our modern financial system, levered and fragile as it is, has been a beneficial and productive component of prosperity. If it were otherwise, our global economy would resemble something out of the dark ages in the early 20th century. High fives, then, for the Princemeister and his alter ego Mr. Wimpy – they have made a great combo-platter. But in order to promote and indeed foster continuing symbiosis, both borrower and lender need to operate in a nutrient-rich environment, a "credit" petri dish of sorts which fosters strong bones and healthy lenders and borrowers in their adult years. That unfortunately does not seem to be the case.

Wimpy's weight-challenged midsection is an obvious testament to the overleveraged condition of today's globalborrowers. Too much debt leads to forced diets and delevering, a process which has been ongoing since Lehman 2008. Not only households, but financial institutions as well as many countries have reduced their caloric intake which in turn has promoted slow growth and in some countries near recession and/or depression. Borrowers are just not in a healthy place and if history is our guide, their restoration may be almost Biblical in terms of timing: seven years of fat followed by seven years of lean – perhaps even longer.

Too little returnLender Chuck Prince's figurative health, however, is not so obvious. Certainly bank balance sheets and creditors in general need to downsize assets, increase equity, or both. That by itself will be a disincentive for economic growth. But in addition there is the lender's current precarious lack of return, yield, or call it "carry" that threatens additional credit extension in future years.

A lender will not easily lend money to an obese over-indebted borrower – that much is clear – but she will also not extend a check when the yield, carry and return on investment is so low that it cannot compensate for historic business model overheads. That is when Chuck Prince's dancing turns from a quick step into a waltz. When yields are too low, and acceptable risk spreads so narrow that top line interest revenue is increasingly marginalized, then lending is at risk. Excessive historical overhead represented by rents, salaries, pension and health benefits, to name just a few, force financial and lending institutions to do one of two things: They lever up to cover those costs or they slow or shut lending down to preserve equity and the ultimate franchise. The levering up is indeed difficult given the 2008 financial crisis and the ensuing follow-through of intensified regulatory oversight. And so, what we are witnessing instead is the beginning of a waltz, a dance where financial institutions such as banks, insurance companies and investment management firms fail to reap the economies of scale so reminiscent of the prior era of fat as opposed to the present one of lean. In the process, they lay off, instead of hire new workers; close branch offices or even ATM machines by the thousands as did Bank of America recently; and yes, ultimately reduce the rate of lending or credit growth which propelled the global economy so effortlessly over the past century.

If the dancing has slowed down, then the reason is not just an overweight partner. It's that the price of money (be it in the form of a real interest rate, a quality risk spread, or both) is too low. Our entire finance-based monetary system – led by banks but typified by insurance companies, investment management firms and hedge funds as well – is based on an acceptable level of carry and the expectation of earning it. When credit is priced such that carry is no longer as profitable at a customary amount of leverage/risk, then the system will stall, list, or perhaps even tip over.

For the current shipwreck perhaps we have the Fed and other central banks to blame. Zero bound interest rates according to their historical models should inevitably and inexorably lead to dynamic real economic recovery. Who wouldn't borrow at near 0% yields – namely the banks – in order to relend at seemingly profitable spreads? Who wouldn't borrow at 3.5% for a 30-year mortgage – namely homeowners – in order to match or even reduce current rent payments? Well, they haven't. Not in the amounts they were supposed to in any case. Structured impediments such as regulatory risk standards for banks and fear of losing money for households have thrown a monkey wrench into those models. Central banks are agog in disbelief that the endless stream of QEs and LTROs have not produced the desired result. Wimpy and Chuck are waltzing, not quickstepping, even with a band playing in up tempo.

Strategy recommendationsWhat then is an investor to do? In a New Normal economy where lenders dance to the Blue Danube instead of the Lindy, how should we move our own feet? Carefully, I suppose, and with recognition that historic returns are just that – historic. Last month's "dying cult of equity" Investment Outlook elicited a lot of excitement, but somehow failed to impress readers with its main point: Returns from both stocks and bonds will be stunted.How could one argue otherwise on the bond side with investment grade bonds yielding only 1.75%? How could one argue otherwise for stocks under the assumption that bond and stock returns were at least in part mathematically conjoined at the hip? How could one argue otherwise when it is obvious that boomers and X'ers, Y's and Z'ers are likely to be disenchanted for their own good reasons for years? How could one argue otherwise when it is apparent that stock market trading has been taken over by machines – that HAL rules the stock exchange roost and does a bad job of it at that? Well, some did and some will continue to argue the counterpoint. Chart 2, however graphically displays the mood of the public as opposed to the mood of the pundits. Only time will determine who was right and who was wrong, even if stocks outperform bonds as indeed I predicted.

The Dying Cult of Equity

Most individual investors don't have the privilege of time nor the choice of risking their investment dollars while being able to recoup it only at .1% money market or CD rates. An investor, it seems, must learn a new dance to fit the diminished return size of the modern dance floor.

If I were an individual investor, I would do this: Balance your asset mix according to your age. Own more stocks if you are young, but more bonds if you are in your 60s, like myself. If you choose an investment advisor, a mutual fund, or an ETF, make sure that your fees are minimized. After all, if overall returns average 3–4% annually how can you possibly afford to give 100 basis points of it back? You cannot. And be careful. The age of credit expansion which led to double-digit portfolio returns is over. The age of inflation is upon us, which typically provides a headwind, not a tailwind, to securities price – both stocks and bonds.

If you are an institution be cognizant as well of the above, but in addition, recognize that higher returns – from both stocks and bonds – usually emanate in countries and economies which exhibit higher growth. And don't trust any country, including the United States, to forever remain a clean dirty shirt. There's mud aplenty in our future, which I'll expound more about in next month's Investment Outlook.

Until then, like Chuck Prince and his buddy Wimpy, you should keep on dancin'. It won't likely be the Lindy or the Quickstep, because our credit-based financial system is burdened by excessive fat and interest rates that are too low. It will be a new, slower-paced dance by necessity but Chuck was right: it's better to be on the dance floor than a wallflower on the sideline. You've just got to watch your step.

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